


Neighborly

by ArkStationsLibrary



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4852484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArkStationsLibrary/pseuds/ArkStationsLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Fuller discovers her neighbor may have slightly criminal tendencies after getting locked out of her apartment. And she might be okay with that except he also happens to be a damn handsome devil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

After a long day of classes at the college, all Kate wants to do is to get into her apartment and sleep. There’s just one problem: she can’t find her damn key anywhere. The eighteen year-old rummages through her purse, trying to find it no avail, and she swears she took it with her that morning but it’s nowhere to be found. She’s just moved into the building and doesn’t really know anyone yet so it’s not like she can ask anyone if she can hang out in their place until the super comes. Still, she calls them anyway, leaves a message, sits and waits. 

It’s been about fifteen minutes of sitting on the floor, looking like an idiot, when she hears someone whistling as they come up the stairs. “Whoa there, Little Lady.” Kate looks up to see a tall guy, with dark hair, wearing a suit with a roguish smile carrying a bag from the Big Kahuna Burger and his cell phone. “Everything alright?” 

Kate sighs. “I locked my key in my apartment.” 

The stranger lets out a whistle. “That is a pickle. You know I bet I could help you get out of this situation if you just asked me nicely.” 

She raises an eyebrow. “What are you going to do? Pick the lock? That never works.” 

“Ye of little faith,” he says, dropping the bag of food in front of his apartment door and pocketing his phone. “Get up and watch the master work.” 

She looks skeptically at him but regardless, the floor is hard and makes her ass hurt so she gets up. He stands in front of the door, takes out what appears to be a snap gun, along with a tiny piece of metal he puts into the lock, and begins to wiggle it around. Then he opens up the door as easy as if it was never locked. 

Kate looks up at him with raised eyebrows. “So, you just normally walk around with a snap gun opening up your neighbors locks?” 

“Expert locksmith,” he says with a wink and Kate rolls her eyes because she sure as hell doesn’t believe that. 

“Uh huh. Thanks for that.” 

“Anytime, Miss uh---“ 

She smiles and holds out her hand. “I’m Kate.” 

Instead of shaking it, the man pulls it up to her lips and kisses it. “Pleasure to meet you, Kate. I’m Seth. Seth Gecko. Friendly neighborhood locksmith. You ever need help getting into your apartment again you just knock….of course, I could make it even easier for you to reach me and give you my number.” 

The young woman laughs. “I guess it could prove handy to have a locksmith on call in case I ever forget it again.” 

“Definitely,” he says, as he takes out a pen and a piece of paper from his suit pocket to scribble down his number for her. “I’m also really good at unlocking all sorts of things. Not just locks.” 

Kate takes the number from him. “I bet you do. Geckos are good at sneaking into all sorts of places.” 

“That they are,” he gives her a wink, and she can’t help but grin. 

“Thanks for the help.” 

“Anytime, neighbor.” 

They stand there staring at each other. Seth has this devilish grin on his face that is making her turn bright red, and she thinks it’s the face of trouble. “I better go. I’ve got studying to do. Nice to meet you.” 

“You too, Kate,” he says and she slips into her apartment well aware that the stranger in the place knows perfectly well how to get in yet somehow not minding. She’ll talk to her super tomorrow to get it fixed. And hopes that maybe Seth will get it into his head to be neighborly again sometime.


	2. Darkness and Sunshine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone asked for another neighbor AU. Added it to this. Might make it a short little ficlet thing. Hope you like it.

Kate wakes up to the sound of her window being pulled open. She lets out a groan. A normal girl would be worried about intruders. But she already knows who it is. “God damn it, Gecko.” There’s the sound of chuckling in the dark as the light on her night stand turns on. 

“Now that’s not the good, little, Christian girl that everyone knows and loves. What will the ladies at the church social say?” 

She sits up on the bed and narrows her eyes. “You are in no position to talk about what’s good and what’s bad. Where exactly have you been all night? Vanessa’s?” 

Seth grits his teeth. “Why does everything always come back to Vanessa?” 

“Because everything always comes back to Vanessa with you. Every single time you’ve snuck into my apartment it’s because you don’t want to do the walk of shame. Because you know Richie will kill you because he hates Vanessa.” 

He scratches the back of his neck. “Well, I don’t know that he hates her.” 

Kate rolls her eyes. “She had him head shrunk when you were married. She tried to get him put away. Richie’s weird, but he’s not crazy. I don’t know how you can be with someone like her.” 

Seth leans up against her wall. “For your information, I wasn’t sneaking in from a night with Vanessa.” 

His eyes glint with mischief. Kate’s been neighbors with him for five years. Long enough to know that whenever Seth looks like a Cheshire cat nothing good can come from it. He survived on cons. 

He’d never gone explicitly into detail. Seth didn’t tell her about his criminal behavior and Kate didn’t drag him to church every Sunday. 

“Oh. You were sneaking in from something else.” 

He grabs a book off of her desk then flips through it before putting it down. “Don’t you worry about me, Katie-cakes. I’ve got a plan that’s going to work this time.” 

“That kind of plan is?” 

He walks over to where Kate sits on her bed, sitting down next to her. “A life plan.” 

Kate scoots over so that he can lay down next to her. “A life plan? That involves something stolen?” 

“A man’s gotta survive somehow.” 

“And working honestly isn’t the way to do that?” 

“Not if you want to live like a King, Kate. Besides, the people I take from----“ 

She puts her hand up. “Remember our deal. You don’t tell me about your criminal escapades. I don’t have my Dad’s congregation pray for your soul.” 

He sighs. “Alright, alright. But you asked about the plan.” 

“What happens when the plan’s complete? Do I get a forwarding address or do I just never see you again?” 

Seth clears his throat. “That’s what I came to talk to you about.” 

Kate glances at him. “So I do get a forwarding address?” 

“I don’t just want to give you the forwarding address, Kate. You’ve been my neighbor for five years. I want…. well…”   
He looks sheepish which is an expression that Kate has never seen on the conman before. 

She rests a hand on his arm. “Want what?” 

“If things go the way that they should I want you to come with me.” 

The words leave her stunned. “With you? With you where?” 

“Anywhere. Some place with a beach. Bet you’d look good in a bikini Fuller.” 

She leans up against the headboard. “I don’t get it.” 

He puts his arm around her shoulders. He’s warm, and it makes Kate snuggle up against him. “Get what?” 

“Get why normal isn’t enough for you. You don’t always have to be the big shot, Seth.” 

“It’s not about being the big shot. You know, you shouldn’t judge what you don’t know Katie.” He plays with her hair making her face flush. 

Theirs is a strange relationship, she thinks. They’ve never dated but he’s always been there. Older, watchful, and protective. Sometimes she thinks of him as a brother but brother has never been quite right. Sitting next to him snuggled in her bed feels right. 

“So why don’t you show me?” 

He looks down at her with wide eyes. The man who dealt with dangerous, blood thirsty criminals on a regular basis was shocked. Something about that made her smile.

She found herself tilting her head up to kiss him. He doesn’t pull back. Seth’s still in a trance like state. His lips taste like liquor; from whatever he’d been doing before he snuck into her apartment window. And his arms wrap around her waist, until her heartbeat is rattling against her chest. 

She’s a supernova about to explode with just the slightest touch from him. Kate’s pictured kissing him a thousand times. But he’s kept his distance. Friendly. Neighborly. Nothing more than a polite hug or a kiss on the forehead sometimes. 

She’d been so young when she moved in. Just eighteen. Now, she was almost twenty-five and he was in his thirties. The age gap was still there but not enough to make him feel guilty. 

Not like if they’d kissed when she was younger. 

Like that one weekend they drove up to Los Angeles. 

Or the fourth of July party her church had hosted and her Dad had made her drag him to. 

Or Richie’s birthday party six months ago when they’d almost…. 

Seth pulls away. “I shouldn’t have done that.” 

She shoots him a dirty look. “Is this the age thing again? We’ve had this fight a million times, Seth. I don’t care. Even Daddy likes you which is saying something, considering. Why can’t we just try?” 

He looks at her hard in a way that makes her remember just who he is. Gecko. The cops in the city have tried so many times to pin him and Richie to any number of crimes. But the brothers live up to their name. They adapt well to the world around them learning the rules quickly. Once, Kate had seen Seth charm a police officer out of a speeding ticket with a gun in his pocket while bleeding from a stab wound after getting into a knife fight. 

Although she probably could have done it herself, being the pretty young thing driving the car at the time. But she’d been so scared for her neighbor of several years that she had only been able to say “yes” and “no” to the officer. 

“I want to try, Kate. I do. But I’ve got to get out of the Underworld first. You deserve sunshine.” 

He kisses her again but it is nowhere near like the other one. There’s no fire to it. It’s delicate, like a feather being run across her lips slowly. Not bad but she knows he’s trying to be careful. It makes her scowl. 

“I can’t choose between sunshine and darkness if you don’t let me see the darkness first. Who knows? I might like it.” 

The conman hangs his head. “Damn it Kate.” 

She smiles, triumphant. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

“That’s a yes. You work tomorrow?” 

“Nope.” 

“Fine, then. Get some sleep. You’re going to need it.” 

“Will do, boss.” 

“Don’t call me boss.” 

“Will do, neighbor.” 

“Don’t call me that either. We’re a little past neighbor when I’m in your bed.” 

“Who said you could stay in my bed? You’ve got your own in a perfectly good apartment right next door.” 

“Yeah, but Richie snores and you smell better. Schooch over.” Kate does as told making room for him. The two fall asleep resting on each other’s shoulders.


End file.
